Thursday, December 12, 2013

Two Sundays ago before church I was looking through the Gospel Library app and came across an article in the December 2013 Ensign related to family history work. Doing family history work is something that I have grown to love lately. The article was about indexing. I have indexed before but have not done any since I began work on my own family history. The article is titled "Indexing is Vital".I love, love, love this quote from the article. It reads, "Many of you may think family history work is to be performed primarily by older people. But I know of no age limit described in the scriptures or guidelines announced by Church leaders restricting this important service to mature adults." This is so true. I enjoy working on family history work for myself and others. You do not have to be "old" to do or be interested in family history work. The young members of the church are very knowledgeable when it comes to technology and can even teach older members how to use family history resources. Indexing is when someone looks at a document and types all of the information into the system. This is how members and non-members are able to search through records on family search and find their family members. Indexing is a fun way to assist with family history work. The article reads, “You don’t need to be temple worthy to index,” President Pickup says, “but when you index, it will refine you, and you will want to be temple worthy, and you will want to go to the temple, and you will want to do work for your ancestors. … I know this because it happened to me”.

Often times I feel like the guy in this short video. He is "stuck" and cannot find information for one of his relatives. It is through indexing that we can looking through records online. What a blessing!

Interested in indexing or working on your own family tree? Visit familysearch.org. The website is free for everybody!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

So, here is my post about Saturday's sessions of General Conference! I think that both sessions were wonderful and that you can learn something from every talk. Those men and women were truly inspired by the Lord. It is such a blessing to be able to meet church wide twice a year and listen to our general authorities.

Here are some notes I took on the talks....

Elder Robert D. Hales

-Study in your mind and then ask if it is right.

-The Lord will tell you what He wants you to do with your life.

-The world is moving faster and farther away from the Lord than ever before.

-The greatest blessings of General Conference come after the conference is over.

Elder Ulisses Soars

-Meekness is vital for us to be more Christ like.

Sister Carole M. Stephens

-Sons of God need daughters of God and daughters of God need sons of God.

-Daughters of God, do we know who we are? Do we know what we have? Are we worth to receive the power and blessings of the priesthood? Do we receive the gifts given to us with gratitude, grace, and dignity? Do we embrace our roles and responsibilities to strengthen homes as mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, and aunts? Do we show respect for men, manhood, and fatherhood?

Elder Edward Dube

-It's not where you serve but how you serve.

-Faith is always pointing towards the future.

Elder David A. Bednar

-The blessings are significant but subtle.

-Spiritual and temporal blessings poured out of the windows of heaven.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

-If the gospel is so wonderful why would anyone leave?

-I suppose the church would only be perfect if it were run by perfect beings.

-The acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding.

-Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.

President Boyd K. Packer

-The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

-The world has enough women who are tough. We need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse. We need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude. We need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune. We need more women of faith. We have enough greed. We more goodness. We have enough vanity. We need more virtue. We have enough popularity. We need purity.

Elder S. Gifford Nielson

-What would you do if the prophet called you?!

-"Behold I will hasten my work in this time"

-Exclamation point. <------ I loved this!

Elder Arnulio Valenzuela

-"The world needs your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save."

Elder Timothy J. Dyches

-Be not afraid. Only believe.

-You will not walk alone.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland

-Never lose faith.

-Hope is never lost.

-Don't assume you can fix everything.

-Stand still.

My favorite talked happened to be the last one of the afternoon session given by Elder M. Russell Ballard. His talk was on hastening the work. I loved everything about his talk.

-Our greatest and most important duty is to share the gospel.

-Are we doing everything we can?

-He has prepared the means and will assist us in our labors.

-Fear will be replaced with confidence.

-It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best on the Lord's errand.

Here is Elder Ballard's talk.

I encourage everyone who missed it or has not seen it to go and watch General Conference. You can find it on lds.org and themormonchannel.com.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

For those of you who don't know I have recently been called as the Primary Secretary in the little ole Paris Branch. I was very excited to be given my first "big calling". It has been a little over a month now that I have had this calling and I thought I would share some of my experiences.

One of the jobs the Primary Secretary has is to do the bulletin boards. Yay! When I was taking Early Childhood Education in high school we put up bulletin boards all the time. So I think it's pretty great that I had a class that taught me how to do a lot of what my calling entails. I got called at the end of November so that meant that my first job was to change the monthly theme and scripture in the class room. No problem, right? Right! Then, for the bulletin board in the hallway I threw up some nativity pictures we had had in the cabinet. Super easy. Well now it is a new year which means new bulletin boards completely. Wednesday it took me over an hour to take down the old stuff. I was able to put up a background, some boarder, the yearly theme, and the monthly theme and scripture. Just enough to make it look presentable today but I am far from done. As for the one in the hallway....well someone had the bright idea to tape up the pictures instead of staple them. They are very nice pictures that can be used next year...well I used wrapping paper for the background. The bulletin board is not looking so pretty right now. Hopefully I can put up enough pictures to cover up all of the rips.

The third Sunday of very month is when the secretary teaches sharing time. Once again I was grateful for the classes I took in high school. We basically ran a preschool which means we did everything...the cooking, teaching, bulletin boards, parent letters, circle time and activity time (which is singing, a lesson, then an activity), took care of money, sanitized everything....pretty much we did it all. I can't even begin to count how many times I taught, either with a lesson plan made up or short notice because someone else couldn't. I was very exceptional in that class, if I do say so myself. So when it came to teaching sharing time I had no worries. I made up a lesson plan like I used in Early Childhood and then one more fitting for the format of the lessons we teach. Lesson plans take all of 30 minutes to fill out, if even that. I looked over it several times before teaching and I was set! My lesson was "Jesus Christ is the light and the life of the world". The lesson started off with talking about Christ's birth and death and the signs that were given for both. Then we played a game...well it was an activity. I had a bag of six things that gave off light. The children had to reach into the bag, touch an object, and try to guess what it was without looking. The activity was pretty fun. After we finished talking about the objects and light I gave them color pages. Color pages are GREAT with little kids. I ended up timing my lesson just right and I got so many compliments! I can't wait till I get to teach again!

So today I heard a funny story. Children are so funny but wait until you hear this.......So one of the primary children (I won't use names but those of you who know the children in the branch can probably guess who it is) .....one of the children thinks that my name is Sister Beans! Haha! I thought that was too funny! The child told their mom that their teacher is class B is Sister Beans! I have heard some very funny stuff while in Primary but is the funniest yet!

The children are so sweet and they really do know and understand the gospel. It is amazing to hear some of the answers they give and the stories they tell. I am grateful I remember most of the Primary songs I learned when I was little. The children are wonderful but they aren't the loudest bunch when it comes to singing. I am also grateful for the opportunity I get to work with them!I look forward to working more with the children and the blessings that come from it!